From the dirt to our plate; the trials and realities of first-time farm ownership

Amazon Prime Surprise Sweets…THE DASH BUTTON INCIDENT

I just received an email today stating their Surprise Sweets box will no longer be a “thing”. Feel free to read about my past experience using the dash button. I’m sure Amazon will come up with many more subscription-style boxes using their dash button. Otherwise, there are plenty of singular products you can purchase using various dash button avenues!

*

After receiving my Amazon Prime Surprise Sweets Dash Button I placed it in an area that didn’t get much traffic. I thought I had found the perfect spot inside the baking cupboard filled with large containers of flour, sugar and various baking ingredients. I affixed it to the side of the cupboard with double stick tape, super high up on the side wall of the cabinet. What I didn’t bank on was the fact my husband would see the button, proceed to push it and ask what it was for.

Thank goodness Amazon was smart enough to realize that multiple presses of the button within a 5 second span of time didn’t mean that I wanted to order 3-5 boxes. What floored me most was the fact he pressed first, asked questions mid-press and didn’t wait for the answer to what it does.

After congratulating him on his first order of an $18 Surprise Sweets Box, his reaction was a shy smile and a mumbled, “Oh.” Yes, I could have hopped onto Amazon to cancel the order but I wanted to prove a point. Don’t press buttons before you know what they are designed to do!

First off, keep all Dash Buttons outside the reach of young children and curious teens or adults. Educate the members of your household on what these buttons do and when they should use them. I learned the hard way but I’m sure there are many more stories out there far worse than mine.

I can only imagine a storage closet lined with a full row of Dash Buttons from toilet paper to toothpaste, cleaning supplies to personal care products. At the hands of an unknowing toddler, the UPS guy could have half his truck ready to deliver to your address!

The point of the Dash Button is ease of ordering right when you need it, at the click of a button. This is a great idea for things you use regularly and tend to run out of. Amazon has many buttons to choose from – laundry detergent, paper towels and toilet paper being a few of the more practical ones.

A Dash Button does carry an initial cost around $5 but this amount is recovered when it is applied to your first order using the button. Check out a few more details in my previous post concerning my first experience with the Amazon Surprise Sweets Box.

THE BOX

My husband’s box arrived two days after the fateful click of the button. At first glance I was a bit sad to see that not a stitch of chocolate was included. In total we received 4 items; one being a repeat sweet included in my initial box only in a different flavor – Flathau’s Raspberry Snaps.

Flathau’s Raspberry Snaps

These delights are powdered sugar covered shortbread with a twist. They come in a variety of flavors such as the Key Lime which was included in my first Amazon Surprise Sweets Box and the raspberry in the current box. This cookie is sweet, light as air, with a slight candy crunch. My husband finds them hard to stop eating once you start – they are that good!

Byrd’s Scotch Oatmeal Cookies

When it comes to crunchy bite sized oatmeal cookies, these are among the best I’ve ever tried. They are very reminiscent of ginger snaps but these don’t have the extreme spice profile. I’d grab a few of these if they magically appeared in my cookie jar but if I’m going to buy a premade cookie, hard cookies wouldn’t be first on my list.

Island Treasures Gourmet Rum Cake

If given a choice of Twinkies or Rum Cake I’d probably choose Twinkies. That’s not to say that this cake isn’t good, but if I eat cake I’ve most likely baked it myself. When it comes to snack cakes, I’d expect to get more than 1 snack cake for the roughly $5 this cake retails for. Gourmet? Perhaps for those who wish to purchase a full-sized cake (retails for around $25) to serve and pass off as their own.

Blissinger’s Tart Cherry Lime Gummy Pandas

Ok, I’m going to be blunt here – my first reaction was these taste like cough syrup. To be fair, most things ‘cherry’ remind me of cold medicine. I was most excited about this product, but my taste buds were disappointed to not taste much lime.

Reading further into Blissinger’s, they are supposedly known for their chocolates. Why not send me chocolates? Because these gummy pandas are award winning for Blissinger’s use of organic sweeteners, natural flavors and coloring made with organic black carrot juice concentrate. So, for the cherry lovers out there…maybe you’d like to get your hands on some of these.

SUMMARY

There is no dancing around it, I feel I seriously overpaid for this particular Amazon Surprise Sweets Box. Even my husband confirmed that he could have thought of a better way to spend $18. I suppose that’s the risk you take when you let someone else pick out something to satisfy your sweet tooth. Or…put the dash button within reach of prying eyes and curious fingers.